Rebecca A Cole

The phylum Acanthocephala contains parasitic worms referred to as thorny-headed worms because both the larval and adult parasites have a retractable proboscis or a tubular structure at the head, which has sharp, recurved hooks or spines. Much like the cestodes or tapeworms, they lack digestive tracts and absorb nutrients from the bird’s intestinal canal. This may weaken the bird and may...

Free-ranging wild birds are afflicted with numerous other parasites that occasionally cause illness and death. Some of these parasites, such as two of the trematodes or flukes highlighted below, can cause major die-offs. This section about parasitic diseases concludes with descriptions of some additional parasites that field biologists may encounter in wild birds. This listing is by no...

Epizootics of scaly leg disease caused by infection with the submacroscopic mite Knemidokoptes jamaicensis (Acari: Knemidokoptidae) in migratory American robins (Turdus migratorius) from a residential area of Tulsa (Oklahoma, USA) are documented during the winters (December through February) of 1993–94 and 1994–95. Estimates of 60 to >80% of the birds in several different flights...

The life cycle of Echinoparyphium rubrum (Cort, 1914) comb. n. has been completed experimentally. All of the developmental stages egg, miracidium, sporocyst, mother and daughter rediae, cercaria, metacercaria, and adult were examined and described. The miracidia infected freshwater snails of the genus Physa , P. gyrina and P. occidentalis. Attempts to infect snails of the genera Lymnaea...

No abstract available.

Twenty species of helminths (9 trematodes, 9 nematodes, and 2 acanthocephalans), including 9 new host records, were collected from 40 bald eagles (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) from Florida. Intensities of infection were low and no lesions were attributed to the parasites. No species were considered specialists in bald eagles; 5 species were considered raptor generalists and the remainder...